‘World’s first’ two-headed porpoise caught in North Sea fishermen’s nets
A TERRIFYING two headed porpoise caught in a fishermen’s nets joins a long list of mysterious sea creatures spotted in 2017.
FISHERMEN have had an unexpected haul after they dredged up a two-headed sea beast from the North Sea.
The Sun reports a trawler picked up the two-headed dead porpoise in waters near Hoek van Holland in the Netherlands.
It’s the first case of conjoined twin porpoises ever discovered and only the tenth known case within cetaceans — a group which includes whales and dolphins.
The harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is the smallest and most abundant cetacean in northwest European continental shelf waters.
There’s an estimated 345,000 of its kind in the North Sea.
The bizarre looking animal was lost to science after the crew of the fishing vessel thought it would be illegal to keep it — and chucked it back into the sea.
But the canny seamen took several snaps before, which have now been analysed by experts at the University of Rotterdam.
It’s the latest in a long list of strange creatures pulled from the sea or washed up on our shores this year.
Scientists recently identified a strange white blob ‘monster’ that washed up on a beach in the Philippines.
Gobsmacked locals rushed to take selfies with the 20 foot creature after it appeared on a beach in Cagdianao, the Dinagat Islands earlier this year.
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